Are you planning to start your own blog? Do you wish to pursue full time blogging to make money?
Most of you might think of making money out of blogging, but wondering is it really possible to do so? Well, in this post, I am going to address all such questions. I am a professional blogger who makes a decent amount of salary through blogging every month.
But how I do this? This is what I am going to explain in this post.
Let’s check!
Blogging is one of the decent and fun professions I have ever found out. If you have good writing skills, blogging can certainly be an excellent career path for you. The good thing is that you can actually make a living out of it.
The hard thing is that millions of people around the world blog every day and most of them are not able to make enough to support themselves only with blogging.
Let’s get into the details.
Blogging as a Profession:
On a whole, I would like to divide the bloggers into five different categories as follows:
Part-time Professionals:
Such people use blogging just to supplement their income.
Hobbyists:
People like these blog for fun. They don’t expect monetary returns and even don’t earn.
Full-time Professionals – Such bloggers do blogging as a full-time job.
Corporate Bloggers:
These people blog as part of their full-time profession or for the organization. They intend to promote their expertise and gain new customers.
Entrepreneur:
Such people blog for their own company and intend to gain professional recognition.
No matter which kind of blogger you intend to become, there are two approaches that you can follow to professional blogging. You can work as an employed blogger for a website or an established organization or as a freelancer and begin your own blog from scratch.
It is much easier to seek a job in an organization than to start your own blog from zero. Even, if you get a job with an established organization then you can easily earn a good amount of money. But at the same time, this will not bring you much online fame.
Establishing and monetizing your blog is time-consuming work and needs lots of patience, just like starting your own business. There is no defined career path or specific trajectory to rely on. While some people have been successful and managed to make hundreds and thousands of dollars through blogging, others have not made a cent from theirs.
The reality is that it is not as simple as you might think to carve out your own space online and make an established name for yourself as a blogger. It was easy when blogging was new. And it takes a lot of time to establish an audience to a point where success can be expected. The successful blogs that presently earn millions were started ten to fifteen years earlier. Hence, it is definitely not something you can make money instantly, though a lot of people do work full-time on their blogs.
How Much Do Bloggers Make?
With everything above said, it is dangerous to act blind and think of making 6-figures with your blog, right when you start it.
Remember, not everyone will be able to make money from it for sure.
As per a survey of 1,500 Problogger followers who wish to make money blogging, 53% of them make from $1 – $99 each month, 10% of them make nothing, and 47% of them make more than $100 a month.
The best thing is that 13% of blog readers in the survey make 5-figures annually and 4% of them were able to make 6-figure income from their blog.
So, yes! It’s true not everyone is not going to make a handsome amount of money; you still have a chance of making a decent amount of money if you are ready to put your heart and time into it.
In another survey conducted by blogging.org, 1000 bloggers were asked the amount of money they are making through blogging.
The results were – 81% of them never made $100 from blogging, 8% make enough money to support their family, 9% earned enough to sustain their lifestyle blogging by blogging 4-6 hours a day and 2% made more than $150k by blogging 2 hours a day.
One thing you will see here is that these bloggers are not just aiming to make money blogging. Hence, it is a slightly different aspect of bloggers from the survey done by Problogger. It is because the second survey included more hobby bloggers.
Are Some Niches More Rewarding than Others?
Absolutely!
There are some blogging niches that are more rewarding as compared to others. Stock trading, making money online, and insurance are the highest earning blogging niches at present.
Though these are the highly profitable niches in the blogging industry that help people to make a lot of money with it, this is the biggest mistake, which most of the new bloggers make.
They begin in a niche that is rewarding when they have almost zero experience in that industry.
As a result, they fail to even meet the blogs published by experienced bloggers in that respective industry. Hence, thousands of such blogs produce no real money at all because of the simple reason that the owner is not professional and has no real passion for the niche or is not knowledgeable enough on the subject.
So, here my suggestion would be to start a blog on the subject they have knowledge. This is much smarter to start a blog and will have more chances to turn profitable.
Are There Any Risks Associated?
Here I would like to say that, if an accountant or a personal trainer can create a successful blog in one year then you too can do it!
Again, I have witnessed people running in different niches without having any real experience in running the blog. But in most of the cases, people fail to monetize their blog.
Some of the prominent reasons for this are:
They want great results without much work:
Blogging is not about getting rich with a quick scheme that needs no efforts and work. The sooner you realize that putting in the efforts is the real secret behind its success, the better it would be for you.
They Talk Just About Anything:
It is better to be a person that doesn’t stick to subjects they have knowledge. It is always a smart move to start your blog on a topic in which you have in-depth knowledge and offer readers something to learn.
They Avoid Starting It:
It must be sad and surprising, but it is actually true. Most of the people are too focused on risks and fears of starting their blog that they actually don’t take any action to start it. It is better to start with a blog if you have a good topic to start with. Learn from your mistakes and this will help you succeed in your blogging.
Fail to Provide Value to Readers:
Remember, blogging is all about providing real value to your audiences and readers. If your blog fails to do so, then you will not be able to get success or sustain long-term survival with your blog.
The Best Way to Make Money through Blogging:
In addition to the above-mentioned reasons, bloggers are not able to make money because they monetize their website incorrectly. It is not a good idea to monetize your site by sponsorships or ads. It is because you require an insane volume of traffic to make a decent sum this way.
If you and other bloggers monetize their blog a smarter way, they can make much more money than what they are making at present.
Some smarter suggested ways are providing courses, services, and affiliate marketing. Personally, these techniques help to make more money through the traffic you are receiving.
Moving on to the next thing, some people have the misconception of creating a blog about making money through blogging.
You are getting enough results for this particular topic because of your own interest in blogging. Definitely, if you will search about it, you will land up successful blogs in the specific topic and would stumble upon some income reports in this context.
Also, individual blogging about blogging is incentivized to provide income reports as it would inspire their readers and consider them as credible experts to rely on. Hence, if you are a rich blogger then you not necessarily have to publish income report as there is no need for it.
Here are some examples of blogs that are highly successful and have not ever published income reports:
- Easy Baby Life – It is a parenting blog earning up to $7,000 per month.
- Digital Photography School – It is a multi-million dollar blog about online business.
- Pinch of Yum – This blog is about food and earns more than $100,000 per month.
- Survival Life – The blog earns up to $1,000,000 per month and is about survival.
- Making Sense of Cents – It is a frugal living blog earning $100,000 per month.
- Zen Habits – The blog has 2 million readers.
- Nerd Fitness – It is a fitness blog making more than 100,000 per month.
These are just a few examples. There are other blogs in different niches that are making good money online but not talking about them. So, you see, it is quite possible to build a successful blog.
Don’t Expect Success Quickly or Too Early!
Don’t let it discourage you, but it could take months to begin making a living with the blog.
As advised by the expert bloggers Angela and Amy Lynn Andrews, it took them almost 8 months to start receiving a single check from their blog. In addition to being patient, you have to be passionate and committed about your blogging. Your prime focus must be on quality content and driving in traffic. And if you are in urgent need of money then it is best to get a job as a blogger rather than starting your own blog.
The other truth is that you will probably have to produce enough content to generate a decent income and that would sure be a major time investment. In this case, it is better to write one post a day. But make sure each post has rich content and that would take hours of research, editing, writing, based on the content, which is quite a hard work.
If you do it simultaneously doing a full-time job then this would require a lot of time and might be money too. So, if you are ready to invest so much time and money then it is best to jump into a blog than increasing your chances of getting a job. This is a great way to share your passion.
It is best to start a blog if you have a passion to write, but if you want your blog to make you rich fast, then it won’t.
It is because it is not a business and a blog.
It is fine to have a blog that gives space to your creativity, lets you talk about things that you like and are important to you and allows you to stay connected to your family and friends. This way you can have a great joyous time, even if your blog is not monetizing.
Start with a Blog Today!
One of the important lessons I have learned from life is to think less and implement the action. If you have the desire, passion, dedication, and zeal to blogging then think no more and start a blog today. If you are ready to spend time for months without expecting a penny then you can start a blog right now. Over-thinking can consume your entire time and will actually never let you start a blog.
So, think no more! Start your blog right now and see after months how it grows.